Sanctuary Wealth, the Indianapolis-based partnership of independent registered investment advisers, unveiled several new capabilities for its partner firms this week at its annual Oasis conference in Hollywood, Fla. This year's conference is the first to include Independence's true partner firms since Sanctuary closed on it platform purchase in May.
The firm is expanding its business consulting unit, launched last year, to include marketing assistance. CEO Adam Malamed said in an interview with WealthManagement.com that the initiative will focus on expanding partners' online presence and supporting their “digital agility”.
“Digital agility is about the ability of an advisor or an independent wealth management firm to control their narrative and understand that their story is about how they are portrayed in the digital world,” he said.
Consultants can get help with search engine optimization, digital branding, social media engagement, online testimonials, and targeted direct marketing. The firm has also approved the use of Google Evidence in accordance with SEC guidelines.
Sanctuary is also building an internal network of specialists to help firms with more complex client needs, such as insurance and estate planning.
“We are required to provide more services, products, solutions and experiences to clients that were once typically offered only in a family office environment that these sophisticated practices are now providing to high net worth investors,” said Malamed.
He expects to hire three to five specialists who will join Sanctuary as employees and have that team up and running by early 2025.
Sanctuary has also expanded its multi-custodian platform with the addition of BNY Pershing. The partnership gives Sanctuary partner firms access to BNY Pershing X's Wove platform, even with assets held in other custodians.
Partner firms will also now have access to dancean artificial intelligence dating assistant co-founded by Parker Ence, Tim Chaves and Adam Kirk in 2022 and launched in January.
The company's AI assistant enables advisers to record client conversations, transcribe them and produce notes, to-do lists, summaries and compliance records. There are integrations with Zoom, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and advisor-specific apps Redtail and Wealthbox CRM.
This year's Oasis conference is Sanctuary's largest to date, with 500 participants, 40% of whom are first-time participants, including those from Tru Independence, the Portland, Ore.-based RIA support platform. The combined entity now represents approximately $44 billion in client assets. As of early 2023, Sanctuary had $23 billion in assets.
Similar to how Malamed integrated the broker/dealers he acquired during his time at Ladenburg Thalmann, Sanctuary has kept true as a separate entity while retaining its brand and management team.
“That's a historical philosophy of mine, how I've always made strategic acquisitions in the space,” Malamed said. “You take a company based on the merits of what made it so incredible in the first place. That starts with the DNA of leadership.”
Sanctuary bought brains to expand its addressable market; it has historically served advisors primarily in the breakaway space, which are under its corporate RIA. Tru supports independent advisors who want to have their own ADV.
Separately, an Indiana Commercial Court judge ruled this week that Sanctuary Wealth breached its contract with EverNest Financial Advisors when it allegedly dragged its feet after the latter firm tried to buy Sanctuary's stake in its business.
Sanctuary Wealth took a 20% membership interest in EverNest in 2022. However, EverNest included in its contract the option to buy back Sanctuary's membership in the firm if a “trigger event” occurs.
According to EverNest, one such event occurred when an affiliate of Sanctuary settled charges with FINRA in September 2022. More than a year later, EverNest managing partner Frank Esposito approached Sanctuary about purchasing the firm's membership interest from EverNest. The parties moved forward in a call-right process, with nothing left but Sanctuary “executing relevant documents and agreements” and EverNest buying Sanctuary's stock at 80% of the stock's valuation.
But after an appraiser's report, Sanctuary “refused to move forward,” arguing the price was too low, according to Indiana Judge Christina R. Klineman.
In an order from EverNest asking the judge to rule in their favor without trial, Klineman agreed that Sanctuary had breached its contract, arguing that EverNest was within its rights to buy back Sanctuary's membership interests after the settlement of FINRA.
However, Klineman opined that a trial may be necessary to determine whether Sanctuary had the right to deny payment based on its belief that the appraisal was incorrect.